Basketball notes

Posted at 5:41 p.m. ET - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

If you're following along with the baseball live blog, you'll notice that I'm out of town for the day. Because I'm gone, I will not be able to post any highlights of the Billy Gillispie news conference that is going on as we speak.

However, UK Athletics typically transcribes a few quotes and any news tidbits that Gillispie has at his conferences on the basketball preview. They should be up within the hour.

I will be back for Saturday's Louisiana State game so don't forget to join us for another live blog. I'm expecting a raucous crowd in Rupp Arena for a huge, huge game. Just a reminder: the game is at 4 p.m., not 2 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. but was changed when CBS picked up the game.

Update: Like I said before, I'm not there, but I was told Gillispie addressed the reports about sophomore A.J. Stewart. Click on the link above to see what he said.

Meeks was the man of the hour; now he's the player to watch

Posted at 2:17 p.m. ET - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

First of all, I wanted to thanks Jodie Meeks again for sitting down with us this afternoon to talk about the historic season he's having. The guy has an extremely busy schedule and we were fortunate to get him just before practice. Thanks to you all for following along.

The second thing is, if you believe ESPN, you should keep your eyes on Meeks this weekend. In ESPN's Weekend Watch , Dana O'Neil writes that Meeks is the player to watch this weekend in college basketball. She says if the Cats are going to win, Meeks is going to be reason.

"Now with Kentucky's back pushing near the wall again, don't be surprised if Meeks helps the Cats come out swinging," O'Neil writes.

Rest assured Wildcat fans, UK still appears to be safe in the eyes of the "bracket experts," although they're not a shoo-in by any means.

Of the 55 brackets the Bracket Matrix compiled, UK remains in 54 of them, dropping in anywhere from a No. 7 seed to a No. 12 seed.

Let me point out that these have absolutely no bearing on where UK could end up come tourney time and there is still plenty of ball to be played. But if you're into bracket projections, you'll love this Web site.

The Bracket Matrix was updated as of Wednesday night just before 9 p.m. but several of the brackets in the compilation haven't been changed in days, so things could change. I'll keep you guys updated on this as the next couple of weeks progress.

Friday links

Posted at 10:50 a.m. ET - Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

The Jodie Meeks chat starts right here at 1 p.m., but before we get to that, let's take you through a few UK stories before the weekend gets here.